Friday, March 30, 2012

Just to fill the time.. you might want to know my pedigree.. that is.. what makes me *any* kind of "expert" in rare cassettes.. or albums of any sort at all...?
Wel.. OK.. here's the short version..
Where I live, there used to be a shop called "Roger's Jukebox" , whose claim to fame was that they had the rarest records in the world.. and, indeed, they did mail-order all over the world..
Rare? How rare are we talking here..
I mean 'Butcher cover, 1st issue, first state, sealed rare.. I mean surf records.. any and all,, sealed, or mint.. I mean Fireballs, or Freddy King releases like "24 Vocals and instrumentals" or 'Bonanza" or... perhaps.. original Beatles EPs such as Magical Mystery Tour, or... a Reel to Reel of a radio station master interview with Mick Fleetwood about 'Tusk" ..
All these are items I either bought from them, or sold TO them..
However, near the end, I parted with my whole collection of vinyl.. and because I couldn't be stressed to use ebay ( it was still new at the time) i sold off the major part of my whole collection to Roger's' Jukebox...
In fact, I paid my mortgage for TWO YEARS doing this.......
I kept my cassettes , 8 tracks , and reels, however, and, that's a shame, because I had a fire, and a stolen car, between the two, I lost them all..
I gave up collecting for ten years, until a few years ago...

I have been soo busy I simply have not had the time to make new posts..
Busy with what? You may well ask.. and you may ;-)
Busy scanning and organizing some of the rarest cassettes ever issued.. before I post them here I want to have them organized .. and folks.. I have a moderate level of Aspergian autism, so that is NOT easy..
But hang in, y'all..soon the rarest cassetes on the 'net will be posted here. so BOOKMARK this site or better yet, sign up as FOLLOWER.. you will NOT regret it, if you are at all interested in rare cassettes!
..............................SOON..................................

Incidentally, when taking a break from scanning, and editing for publication, all these covers, I have considered what to do with the several thousand tapes on hand,
Selling them on ebay is a non starter.. I'd rather keep them than sell to anonymous faces
____________BUT____________
What about a shop?
Now where I live, any shops that sell cassettes and tapes in general are all gone belly up.. even the CD chains and also the privateers are having a hard time..
But.. why not have an "experiential' kind of shop.. say.. licensed, with tables on the curb outside where one can peruse either what was freshly bought, or the current stock, while having a pint.. complete with running films about past rarity conventions, music playing from any of the rare stock..
I've done the math.. and it seems I only need 10 to 20 sales per day of truly "collectible' items to make this thing float...
What about y'all.. do YOU remember the smell of , say, book stores, where you could spend all day inside looking for that perfect rare book, or the old vinyl record shops, where . come rain or shine, it wuz cozy to the max to go through all these records, even if you bought nothing.. where else would you have ever wanted to be?
Remember??

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

So OK you may have *not* got the OldTestament reference in the title (or should i have said on the wall;-)..
But you *should* have gotten the main point.. which is, that there's several hundred VERY RARE tapes on the way to being posted.. that you'll see NOWHERE else.. ( I Mean, c'mon, who ELSE has *ever* posted a full screenshot of John and Yoko's "unfinished music No 2, and MINT, no less....! )
...*BUT* organizing , and scanning these tapes, without ruining them, takes TIME..
So.. HANG ON TO YOU'RE SEAT!!!!!!!
(or whatever ;-)
I's coming mistuh.. I's just shufflin my feets as fast as theys gonna go (with respects to ole great great gran papa)

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Well, I thought I'd given up collecting them.. but I couldn't resist here..
It's astonishing what some sellers are charging for them.. in average condition sometimes over 30$ (admittedly for rare ones) and let's face it..aint NOBODY anymore sells ones in THIS condition
I only paid an average of 2$ apiece though for these , and in far far better condition.. I normally wouldn't take them even for free, even if they're extremely rare unless they're near mint.., frankly, it's only *because* of the condition that I bought them (except for the TYA, it's a contribution...)
The ones I see for sale at 25 $ to 30$ are *not* even in this kind of shape though either..

(Update.. may 28th
I thought I had scanned them all, but apparently not.. so some new ones here)
A nice Fleetwood Mac blues era cartridge..

Although it's not THAT hard to find Ummagumma on 8Track, it's not so easy these days either:

A "White apple" Abbey Road .. a first issue, just like the cassettes, missing "Her Majesty!)

A first issue of Alvin Lee and Company..

A bit of a note comparing cassettes to 8 tracks..although cassettes can suffer serious sound issues, if too old, at the end of the day, cassettes *are* playable, or should be.. even if it's not always the case, but however, 8 Track Cartridges are atrocious...

I know a little bit about early Fleetwood Mac, however, so I knew just how few of these were actually made, when I ran across them..

Both Future Games and Kiln house, were modest sellers.. meaning that initially, they might only sell 50,000 units, but that's *vinyl*, as it was still King in the early 70's and tape only accounted for a percentage.. mostly 8 track too..so assume maybe 10, 000 units of 8 track cartridges, and 1000 cassettes.

Now, these are first issues also, as they were distributed by Kinney Music in Canada, so that these are part of the *north american * run of 10, 000.. but, being Canadian, there were only 1000 made.

Of that 1000, how many do you think are still in pristine condition?

NOW you know why I picked them up. They are *mint*....

Here's some Elvis I ised to have, but no longer.. they were in the boot of my car when it got scooped..

And. a new one. it's Soooo rare it's almost a joke...

The small faces... on MGM... (how they got the rights to Decca's stuff, back in 1968, i can't even guess...)

OH apparently the rights were contested, by someone or other.. so they played it safe and just pulled the album right after it came out..

Soo, just how many are out there? at least a couple dozen ;-)

And wow.. here's a recent find.. I have NEVER seen this on eight track cartridge before (or cassette either, come to think of it)... Furthermore, before the internet (and before Castle became the great UK artists reissue label), this was the ONLY way to get to hear the first two Humble Pie albums.. in North America, anyways .. OK in Canada we also had Daffodil Records.. which put out the immediate catalog complete with these gorgeous silver and gold covers.. I used to collect them too.. and nearly had the full set, including the first two Humble Pie LPs.. MINT... as they came out on Immediate (now there's a hip label, and a sad story, for y'all...!)

And.. although i *really* try to avoid these things, every so often I surrendered to the "OMG it's just so frikkin' RARE" bug, so....here's the rest of the ones i *used* to have, I can't remember if they were in
the trunk of my car that got impounded ("honest officer, if i'd a knowed they was gonna use my car as a getaway car for a meat robbery I'd have asked for steak tartar").. or if something else happened to them.. but I don't have them anymore...

And aw.. man what are the chances of EVER seeing another of THIS?.... Wonderwall Music, By George Harrison on 8TRACK!.. wow..

I used to have the cassette version of this also.. the premier beatles collecting site on the web, says this never came out on cassette or 8 track.. see here , otherwise, for yourself...

Here's another Duane 8 Track.. Not all that common, although if you run into any of his albums on 8 track, you're more likely to find this than any other:

Here's an addition to my John Mayall collection.. I got this one for 25 cents down the road!

Here's one I cant remember where I got it.. but it's by far, my favorite Savoy Brown album, still, after all these years:

And, a last note for the advent of Summer... roll down the windows, let the heat wash over ya, and stick this in the car player!

Here's a super rare tape.. the original "Let It Be" on the ART (ABKCO/Apple) label..

These didn't hang around long.. the cassettes , (the ones that came in a cardboard box) were even more common than the 8 tracks, at least for this album..they were soon out of print, and a few years later reissued by Apple/EMI (or Capitol, in the states)

Saturday, March 17, 2012

I do not know this seller on EBAY, but lemme tell you.. I have seen this listing for a week, and there are NO takers for what is probably one of the RAREST cassettes out there..
has everybody gone OUT TO LUNCH?..

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

I've run intro a tape.. a reissue of "Hey Jude" that seems to have a peculiar anomaly.. apparently, it's a *Capitol* tape, made by *Apple* , instead of the normal Apple tapes, manufactured by Capitol.. it has the Capitol Logo on front, and both the "Manufactured by Capitol, AND the Manufactured by Apple"..
Anyone ever see this misprint before? Is it rare or did they make a lot with this particular error.?
I have been able to find nothing so far on the web, I may have to join a dedicated Beatles site to find out...

OK i hinted I may have a special tape be posted soon.. and here it is..
An absolutely *Mint* copy of "Life with the Lions : Unfinished Music No 2"
It's certainly not a cassette you would ever buy for the.. er.. music ..
And because of that, very few were ever sold.. to find one in mint condition would appear to be a simple matter, as nobody ever played these more than once. but they still age from exposure to air.. mine was sealed for 45 years.. i only unsealed it now to take these scans:

This is a post in progress.
Instead of starting with the earliest releases .. I think I'll post what has GOT to be one of the HOTTEST albums ANYONE has ever made.. right now I'm listening to the truest Chuck Berry tribute *anyone *has ever recordeed.. not derivative in ANY way.. but a true tribute.. ( i now an hour later, do not remember the title,, so if you get the album, you'll have to listen to the whole thing to find out which track I mean) and lemme tell you.. the rest of the album is also a masterpiece...
It's called "1984".. or "I hear you Rocking" depending here you live..
It's an old album, but it says what he (Mister Alvin Lee) is about, in spades
So.. am i gona get to play with ya? lemme know - soon!!
OK I am biased.. who wouldn't be..
You have got to hear it .. so in the comments is a link...

(for those who don't know, I also have a music blog where I post my own releases..)
Here's the artwork...
Front:

And here's the back... soo what's with the markers felts?

Here's the story: A fella (Gary) who I buy a lot of tapes from on eBAy.. seems to have gotten a whole bunch off REALLY good tapes from somebody who thought the best way to treat rare tapes was to DEFACE them.. this fella has Albert King, Freddie King, Alvin Lee (as you can see) John Lee Hooker, etc.. the very best of the best, all defaced.. with orange marker..

and since I also have good taste, I keep ending up with all these defaced tapes...

Saturday, March 10, 2012

eBay over the last few days has been just *flooded* with "Rare original pressynks" of Beatles cassettes.. purported to be from the 60's and early 70's..
Only problem is, this was pre - Lech Walensa days.. when the "iron curtain" was well and fully solid.. there were NO official Beatles cassettes there. At all. Period.
Only those smuggled in from (usually) Germany .. and.. counterfeits.
Many... many many.. counterfeits.
You can do the same now, with a printer and about 5 minutes work..
If I were the fella with these tapes, I wouldn't advertise them as "Rare" first editions, but rather as homemade "Cold war trinkets"...

You have to be very knowledgeable, and cautious, when buying cassettes from dictatorships, former communist countries, and countries with lax counterfeit enforcement.. such as eastern Europe, Greece or Turkey . Saudi Arabia and other countries in that region , China (especially avoid Chinese tapes), and any other east asian country , and African countries (keep in mind this applies to BIG labels only, the homemade tapes are a veritable treasure chest of wonderful artists, especially in Africa, with it's many afro-beat bands..

.. in no particular order, except for the fact that they all are really quite scarce, to a greater or lesser degree..
To set the tone, let's start out with, well, "rarities".. by the Beatles.. I don't see this often.. unlike the US version of "Rarities" this only came out as part of the Beatles 'Blue Box'..

This next one, I don't think I've ever seen on cassette before.. it's a very old issue.. probably 1969 or 1970..

And here's another one that is really rare, and probably unknown to anybody outside of the "Immediate records" fan circle.. (Now there was a record company tale that rivals Stax's own!)

Now to my favorite in this bunch.. Steve Marriot's First solo album.. a hard one to find, in any format..

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Sorry aboot the shameless lyrical reference..point is.. I am now working on a 'Pet' post.. Fleetwood Mac (1968 to 1974) is one of my four biggest influential bands.. of whom I've always considered FM to be at the apex//
Both Danny Kirwan (who I don't know, but have the greatest sympathies for, considering his 'troubles'), and Bob Welch (who I do know, just a little bit.. having also asked him to come by and support my 'troubled ' blog ;-)) have been wonderful influences.. via 'Future Games'...the first FM album I ever bought..
As it happens, I recently have stumbled upon a precious few original FM cassettes.. although not all are in my possession just yet, given the vagaries of the international post..
So I'll post a cover now.. and the rest will be posted in a short while..
...THEN PLAY ON. came out with a lovely hand-drawn cover , perhaps some artist's rendition of something significant.. I had a really nice AMPEX copy of it on cassette in the early 70's , when it was distributed by Kinney Music..
Except in the UK.. for some reason it was issued in 'Basic Black' for at least a year, before they changed to the now standard 'horse and rider' hand-drawn cover...
Does anyone know why?
Irregardless... here it is...

Another somewhat early one, even though , technically, It's a re-issue, from the 70's, is "Albatross'.. a combination of some of Christine McVie's solo album (as C Perfect), and tracks from FM's first three albums..I first bought it on vinyl, back when UK pressings were ultra cool.. and they WERE too.. the covers were of a superior cardboard, as was the ink and such, and the vinyl was considerably quieter.. although they were unlikely to be first pressings, so they came with this (now) humorous caption of a 'Skull and crossbones' Home Taping is Killing Music' (!)

Really? Home taping, and apparently, not the crappy signings that the big labels were engaging in, and continue to this day?..(Seems snorting an ounce a day, and spending all your hard-earned on ladies of the hour, can affect your ability to discern good from crap...)

OK.. a later update here- unlike the rest of these posts, I'm not going to try to post every tape I have of the relevant artist, all in one go..rather, a bit at a time.. so next tape:

And.. not in any order of release either.. so that allows ne to go back to..this:

Their third album in the UK.. although I know the American equivalents (which would be English Rose and Black Magic Woman, etc) did exist on tape, I haven't seen them , other than the Epic records Black Magic Woman, of which I had a copy...

Next is the rare as 'hens teeth' set from the Boston 1970 gigs.. 'Cerulean'..

Often classified in discographies as a Bootleg, it is in fact, not:.. although it retains the garish coloring typical of boots ..

And, in no particular order , MAdison Blues :

Next.. a much later one.. Tusk,, i always liked this version of the album cover, though:

Next.. a bit of a sideways step..

I bought a copy of 'Penguin and when I received it it had TWO covers in the box.. :

My Copyright notice (IMPORTANT!!!!!)

The original copyrights in these cover designs continue to be owned by whoever designed them.. However by posting photos and scans of them here for informational and entertainment uses only, I claim the actual intent of "Fair Use' rights.

However, I add this on my own..

You may use these for any private purpose you see fit, but

YOU MAY NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER USE THESE SCANS FOR ANY COMMERCIAL PURPOSE WHAT SO EVER!!

That means NO copying and posting on Ebay, or any other commercial website, to 'represent' the item you're too lazy or dishonest to scan or photograph for yourself..

If i ever find you have been using my scans to represent your items on any sales website WHATSOEVER.. i will IMMEDIATELY report you.

That also means no copying these scans to assist in creating 'Fake' cassettes either, for any commercial sale.

I WILL REPORT YOU!

Collecting is tricky enough without theives and liars getting into the mix...

And i look LONG and HARD to find ones in condition as good as these are to display..

Thank you for your time..

Doc

About Me

Depending on which of my blogs this is applying to..I am a Guitar player, Bassist, violinist, drummer, arranger, producer, engineer, etc etc .. have recorded 13 demos , played on 16 albums that have been issued, on 11 that have not, have no F##ing money, I Have been collecting cassettes for over 30 years.. although I have recently had to start over due to a fire.
Here are the sleeves of the tapes I currently have in my collection, as well as old ones I managed to scan before I lost them...all in Hi Resolution!
Some are so rare that there are no references of any kind to them.. they may be the only surviving copies left..!
Enjoy!
And PS.. I am always open to trades, or parting with a couple of them also..

Pages

Current Silver Value

What cassette I'm ripping (or listening to) right now

B.B. King.. ALL the 40 year old STEREO United cassettes.. WOW!

Why Collect Cassettes?

Indeed? Nobody usually knows why they've got "The Bug"..

But.. look at it this way, Collectors are, firstly, Historians, guardians of an eras' culture .. and if the pieces of history one collects have artistic value, and even functionality.. this is where it all comes together..

Happy hunting!

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